Legalizing Marijuana And Life Insurance: The Medical Marijuana Insurance Side

There is more than one angle we have to explore in regards to applying for life insurance as a marijuana user, as there are different types of users. Someone who is a recreational user is going to be viewed a little different than a person who is using marijuana medically.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at the medical side of marijuana and life insurance.

Life insurance is one of the most important purchases that you’ll ever make for you and your family. There are dozens of different factors that go into your life insurance premiums.

Medical Marijuana Insurance

On August 11th, you likely heard of, or even had the chance to watch, the documentary “Weed” featured on CNN. A few days previous to its broadcast, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, wrote an article regarding his change in view on marijuana. It currently has over 26,000 comments.

To say marijuana is a hot topic might be a bit of an understatement.

But if you read Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s article or had a chance to watch the documentary aired on television, you’ll see there is some real substance, not just controversy. The discussion leans toward the medical side of marijuana and the benefits marijuana might offer someone. It’s a change in view from the typical adverse effects of marijuana use which are usually pronounced.

So how might this new view affect insurance?

Let’s start with the classification of marijuana as a drug and compare it to some other drugs. Marijuana is a schedule I drug according to the DEA. A schedule II drug listed is cocaine on the same page.

If someone is a cocaine user, do you think they’re getting life insurance? You can probably answer the question on your own. Yet if someone is a marijuana user, which is technically a substance listed in a higher schedule than cocaine, you can still get life insurance. So what kind of conclusions can we draw from this in regards to insurance?

Each insurance company is liable to pay the claims for the policies it writes. If someone applies to an insurance company and is accepted, having disclosed the use of marijuana, not only is it not necessarily a decline, but you can get a great rating. So it’s not really the legality which an insurance company is looking for, but something else. Obviously they are much more worried about having to pay the claim.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has put some interesting things on the table for life insurance companies to look into. If legality is not really an issue as compared to the health effects of a substance, than surely marijuana is bound to receive better and better ratings and acceptance rates as more information comes to surface, especially when compared to other illicit drugs.

But the underwriters aren’t just looking at marijuana as a schedule I drug, and they aren’t just reviewing how you use it. In fact, they aren’t just looking at the long term effects, either. Those are just pieces of the bigger puzzle.

When considering life insurance and medical marijuana, you need to remember why you are medically allowed to use the marijuana in the first place. Too many applicants get excited they can get life insurance as a user, but forget the underlying reason why they’re using in the first place.

Medical marijuana can treat a lot of symptoms, and the number will likely increase in time as more research is done. Here’s a few:

Chronic Pain

Nausea

Seizures

Inflammation

Stress

Anxiety

Spasms

But symptoms like these stem from something. Medical marijuana isn’t simply going to be issued to someone who has had one case of symptoms, but rather a series of them. The insurance company is not only worried about the symptoms, but why you have the symptoms as well.

If your symptoms stem from something like arthritis, cancer, epilepsy, hypertension, or any other disease which results in your issuance of a medicinal marijuana prescription, you’ll need to find out if you can still get life insurance with the attributed disease, not just the marijuana use resulting from the symptoms.

In short, you’ll need to be prepared to qualify for life insurance in all areas, not just the use of the marijuana. Don’t forget the life insurance company is more worried with if something can have an influence on your life expectancy. Your medical records, driving records, and other forms of information about will all be considered before you are issued life insurance.

As you can see, there are dozens of different factors that the insurance company is going to consider when they are looking at your policy application. It can be a long and difficult process trying to get the best policy to fit your needs. Luckily, we are here to help. Our advisors can walk you the applications process as well as answer any questions that you have about life insurance and marijuana usage.

If you want to get the lowest insurance rates available, there are several things that you can do to ensure that you’re getting the best rates. The first that that you should do is improve your health, and there are several different ways that you can do that.

The first things that you can do is to start a healthy diet and get regular exercise. Both of these are going to play a major role in your overall health as well as your monthly premiums. Before you’re accepted for coverage, the insurance company is going to require that you undergo a medical exam (unless you choose a no medical exam), and the results of the exam are going to be one of the most important factors when calculating your insurance premiums.

Another way to lower your insurance premiums is to stop smoking cigarettes. Unlike marijuana, there is no grey area with cigarettes. Smokers are going to pay twice as much for their insurance coverage versus what a non-smoker is going to pay.

Marijuana is just a piece in large medical puzzle in the eyes of the insurance company.

Continue to follow along all month long as we look more into the world of life insurance and marijuana through our #CoveredForLIFE campaign.

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